The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. SOUND FINANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81840, 5 September 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. SOUND FINANCE.

IT TAKES time to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the mass of matter contained in the Budget speech. It will also take considerable time to dispose of the tremendous amount ot business outlined in that speech. 1 ar liament must complete its labors in time for the Christchurch Exhibition. That is to say, Parliament has less than two months in winch to do morework than it has been able to do 111 any previous three sessions. Sir Joseph strikes a good chord when ho talks of sound hnance, for considering our sheet anchor of £(>V9i,°4 o —with another mi'lion tag on to it before the end of the year we want sound finance badly. * * * *

We do not think that the means taken by the Government to attract tourists show any balance on the right side of the ledger, being strongly of opinion that result this attraction has, it is entirely unnecessary to have the country covered with Government agents who do not earn their salaries. We with our huge debt cannot afford to spend many thousands of pounds per yeai in order to induce a comparatively small number of people to come here and spend infinite.y less than it costs to attract them. The money spent on the Tourist Department could \vc hold, be spent to much greater advantage in rnading the back countn. We would be sure of a return in this direction. * * * * TIIKRE is enough moat in the Govcrnment's land pr: posals to keep Parliament sitting for two years continuously. The mere question ot limiting the frteholding of more than fifty thousand pounds worth of land to one pcrscn might of course be expected to raise the opposition ot some members of the House, who, like Mr. Rutherford, . the member for Hurunui, would consider this quite a poverty stricken holding. Much of the enormous increase in the public debt is on account of nv ney borrowed in ordci to acquire large areas of privately owned land for close settlement.

There is 110 d übt that the State should never have bv its own va'u aliens forced the owners of land sold them by the Crown to ask prices in excess of the real value. The State has plaved a losing game in some re specks ov'er its settlement of Hind, and although it is generous enough as a landlord, its generosity is not always a benefit to the community which does not get its immediate iiv lihood off the soil. The State proposes to try to remedy this by refus ing to alienate any pi"re Crown lands.

IT !S sincerely to be hoped that the .ailvvav proposals of the Government, should" tlicv be accepted by Par.ia .lient, will be dealt with under a sys .em ot "sound finance. ' lhc Budget | m an airy and optimistic dis misses tne North Island Main liun.>. rai>\vay at the close of lyoS. But the Govtrnni'-ni has got to nestle if il n.eans better business lhan fotmei wovernments, which had a (jueet no tin of railway constitution indeed, iliere used to be a great amount ot firsl-sod laying and llummery and tiags. Then a m.le or so of raijway that appeared to be going to a spot where it was needed was built, the work was stopped, and remained in -oine cases for yeais. As an example remember the Thames-Paeroa line. A very similar thing happened ir. Marlborough. While essential " railways were stopped foi years absolutely unessential ones where gone on with. 111 is was hardly "sound finance The Premier's pian is to concentrate on the trunk lines, and we hope he will not divert from the said plan.

We have been in the habit of looking on sinking funds set apart for reduction of debt as money to be spent, and we have spent it. "Reading the backWocks" is a good promise. It has been a good promise for fifteen yeais. Leaving Taranaki aside—what about the North of Auckland "newly settled" districts. The conditions there are beyond expression hopeless. The "roads" are indicated by white-painted floodpoles and settlers are acquatic. These settlers are getting used to a twenty mile pull in a boat over their paddocks and the paddocks of their neighbours. Better spend money on roads, as we before said, than keep a horde of drones in various parts of New Zealand to attract the tourist.

()N THE \v!u»U», perhaps tin; most interesting jjit of the t is the remarkably frank admission of tin; Premier that the country was not in l'ie habit of paying its debts and the promise to establish new sinking funds. The njJony is urgently in need of the Canadian sys,em of "Yellow books" which are issued and may be obtained bv anyone desirous of

knowing' the real financial condition of the Dominion. In these Yellow Hooks the smal'cst "items" of public expenditure is shown even to a bar of soap. If Sir Joseph's Government is going in for "sound financo" it has got to give the members of the House of Representatives and the people the fullest information about the spending of money that we have borrowed. The fact that we have pawned ourselves is the chief reason why we should have a policy of sound finance and thrift, and 1 f the Premier succeeds in instituting such a policy lie will have chine more than most of his predecessors and will gain and maintain the support of the country.